sabato 13 dicembre 2014

After the first (and not very satisfying) participation in the box break of Topps Supreme, I decided to give a second try to this kind of experience...
And so I joined another box break the following week... This time it was a Case of 2014 Topps Triple Threads!!!!

The product sounded way to inviting to me and I immediately decided to buy a spot, this time it was a bit more expensive than the first time, but it's been also much more satisfying...

The team I've been paired with were the Cincinnati Reds!

As you're about to see it has been waaaay better than the Rockies Supreme break!

In my opinion the Reds have been the most hot team in the break, together with the Red Sox and the Braves...and here's a recap of what I got, starting from the base cards

Two nice Johnny Bench (the second is numbered to 325) and a Joey Votto!

I think that the base cards have a nice look, even if they remind me too much of 2008 Upper Deck A piece of History...

A couple of game used cards were also pulled for my team, a Mat Latos Unity Jersey to 27, and a much cooler "Players Choice" jersey card of Todd Frazier, numbered to 27 as well!

A redemption card was also pulled, and obviously immediately redeemed..a Billy Hamilton jersey auto card numbered to 18! Yes, I lifted the Topps seal a bit to see the numbering.. cool looking card!

I also got a pair of Tony Cingrani cards, both with jersey pieces and Autograph, but one is numbered to 99 and the other to 50!

And there's more!

The following cards were also pulled, and the next is from (in my opinion) the most important player in the whole lot...Mr Joey Votto!

Here's the red jersey and sticker auto card of him! And also the first auto of him in my collection!

Almost forgot to say that the card is numbered to 99

The last card deserved this honor spot since it is numbered to just 3!

It is a Jersey-Patch-Jersey combo, together with an autograph of Brandon Phillips, numbered to just 3! Mine is 3/3 btw...very nice card!

That's all for the second, and very rich, box break I've ever joined!

10 cards total, 7 of them being hits!

A great break overall, and even greater from my personal point of view!

Before I finish, I must say that I'm very happy with my first experience with redemption cards, the Billy Hamilton arrived at my doorstep exactly two weeks after I wrote the code in the Topps Redemption website, and considering that I live oversea, well done Topps!

See you next time, maybe after all the boxes I got for Christmas have been opened and some more (hopefully) cool cards will be mine!

A couple of weeks ago I decided to take a chance at a box break of 2014 Topps Supreme at DACardworld.com...
I was completely new to this kind of stuff (except for the tons of videos I saw on Yutube), and so I bought a spot in the break...

The product as I said was Topps Supreme from this year...

As usual the break started with the random team pairing...and I got....

the ROCKIES!

I immediately started thinking about what are the most probable players to be added in such a high-end product and I was only able to think about Troy Tulowitzki and Todd Helton... well I'm here to tell a different story!

The players I got from the break are two unknonwn (at least to me) players from the Colorado Rockies, and their names are Kyle Parker and Eddie Butler...

No idea about the players, but for sure the cards they appear on are very cool, and so let's have a look..

Here's the Parker, showing the classic RC logo, and a nice 25 numbering! I don't know if the sticker (yes, sticker) is off centered or what, but it might have been placed a little more on the right...

The Butler also has the RC logo on it, but it appears to be part of the Simply Supreme set, or so I guess... also this card is numbered to 25 but no trace of sticker this time!

That's all for my first ever box break, not too happy with the results but at the same time not completely disappointed...

As you'll discover in my next post, a second Box Break was waiting for me...

December arrived and the tradition of receiving packages to my Italian address keeps on going!

This time I'll show you some (in my opinion) cool pieces of cardboard I bought on ebay... I'm waiting for two more cards but they're taking longer than these to arrive so let's start with the ones that follow...

First is a lot of four cards that I bought from an Engish seller, including a 2013 Auto of Doctor K, Dwight Gooden from the Chasing History set...

And the reason why I decided to buy the lot, this wonderful 2012 Panini Cooperstown Auto of Dennis Eckersley, numbered to 650!

The fouth card is not depicted since it was "just" a Starlin Castro Rookie Card from 2010 Topps Chrome...

Two more cards before I end the post, the first is an iconic card from 2007 Topps set, the card number 40, showing The Captain Derek Jeter, The Mick Mickey Mantle and a man from Texas whose father appeared on a baseball card in 1990 Topps wearing a Yale uniform, George W Bush

The last one is a card signed by a great player, and I was surprised of getting it for less than 20 bucks, it's a 2013 Panini Pastime Signatures of David Wright, numbered to125!

after a pacakge sent to Jeroen, The Dutch Card Guy some weeks ago, I received his package back, so now this it's officially a Trade!

Among the cards he sent (a big lot of cards), I selected some very nice examples, and here they are!

First a couple of game used cards, one is from 2014 Panini Game Gear (I'm proud of this italian brand), and it features a jersey piece of Andy Dirks from Detroit (Tigers). And the second is from 2014 Allen & Ginter, and it comes from a Jersey wore by Brian McCann..here come the pics!

These are cool addition to my collection...I really like A&G when it comes down to memorabilia cards..

Next are some regular (but don't call them base), but very very cool cards I received together with the two above..here they are!

Above is a nice die-cut card from 2012 Donruss Elite Extra of Clint Coulter, and it is numbered to 200! It is very cool right? The next is a 2014 Topps gold parallel version of one of the best rookies of the last season...I'm talkin' 'bout Jose Fernandez! And it is numbered to 2014...

The two Bowman cards that I'm about to show you are from a player very important to me, since they depict an italian player that had a discrete success in the Majors, and I'm talking about Alex Liddi, wearing the Italian Jersey in these cards from 2009 Bowman

To include in the post with some x-fracting effect, here's a 2014 Donruss Elite Domination numbered to 999 with Kung-Fu Panda on it! I don't know how Donruss calls this kind of effect, since especially Bowman, has baptized its parallel cards with some pretty weird names (in my opinion obviously), so I'll simply go with X-fractor...

And the very last card for this post is a 2014 Topps Chrome of Ben Zobrist, and it's the beautiful black bordered version, numbered to just 100!

This is all for this post, as I said I had to chose a limited number of cards from a very huge package I received, and I have to thank my fellow european collector Jeroen, aka The Dutch Card Guy!

I bought myself a big lot of boxes from DACardworld, so after Christmas when they all will be busted I'll have some more cool stuff for you!

lunedì 10 novembre 2014

After a couple of posts with a disorienting title, let's go back to the more comfortable and from several weeks unused title...

Well, once again the title should have sounded like "about two months ago in my mailbox" or something like that, but since this is my third post for this evening, I'm trying to recover all the time spent without posting, but not without buying cards as you're about to discover...

I think I'm gonna start with something recently issued, and manufactured by an italian company, it's a 2014 Panini Immaculate patch of Travis d'Arnaud..numbered to 99!
I really like this product, and I hope to be able to get my hands on a box of Immaculate sooner o later (but probably later)...

Now a card that is pretty old if compared to the previous one, it's from 2005 Donruss (before it became a Panini owned brand) Prime Patches, and features pieces of Batting Glove, Shoe, Bat and Fielding Glove used by Richie Sexson, this rich(ie) card is numbered to an unusual 61!

Let's go back to the future, to 2008, when Bowman released this Chrome Auto Card of Austin Romine!

And once again we travel back to 2002, to see a (in my opinion) great Donruss Studio Private Signings of Carloz Zambrano! This card is numbered to 250 but it's nonetheless very nice

Five years closer to the present to discover this beautiful patch card of Albert Pujols, numbered to 75 and from a set that I really like and some day may even try to complete, I'm talking about 2007 UD Premier, and here's the card!

All this time travelling made me very hungry...hungry for 2013 Tribute WBC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, also in this post will be featured cards from this (in my opinion) underrated set..well that means more cards for me at least!

For the 5th consecutive year, last August I paid my annual visit to the great White Plains card show, and here's the report!

First a picture taken outside the location, it's the home of the White Plains Knicks (NY Knicks affiliated I think), and it also hosts several shows (card related and not) every year.

My visit started early in the morning, and lasted until the closing time...and as usual I immediately lost every inch of reason and started going through every bin ,box, bag, display (more than once I must admit) in this big and wonderful card show!

As I mentioned in my previous post (I just posted it), in this trip to the USA I beat every former record I've ever set, both for quantity (and relatively less) for the quality of my pick ups..

Before I finish my count and check of all the cards I brought home from the holiday (I just say that I went waaaaaaay over 5.000 cards...), I'll show you some of the best picks, being in most cases game used and a couple autos..the cards were very cheap, and believe me, I'm using the term without any negative meaning, au contraire! I'm very happy whenever I can find nice looking cards for a reasonable price, and those you're about to see costed about 2/3 dollars each..so let's start the show!

Some cards from the 2007 Ultimate Star Materials, presenting you Pujols, Lackey, Johnson, Atkins and Peavy! (Not necessarily in this order!)

I also decided to pay tribute to the Yankees with some cards from the team's present and past, and I know that a couple of them are not very loved by the fans (and I understand why), but their cards deserve to be in my collection as well!

First is the most unusual piece of memorabilia I've ever met, a piece of a Bench! And I'm not speaking of Johnny Bench (a piece of whom would even be more weird!), but an All Star Game Bench, in some way related to Reggie Jackson! It's from 2001 Donruss Classics Benchmarks,and it's unfortunately not numbered. Followed by a piece of (green?) jersey of Jim "Catfish" Hunter, from 2004 SP Legendary cuts!

Then a couple of cards from Alex Rodriguez, one features a piece of bat, from 2001 UD Legendary Lumber, and the other is from 2001 SPX winning materials, featuring a piece of bat and a piece of jersey from the (at the time not scandalous) player when he was just a Mariners rising star...

I will try to balance to booing for A-Rod and for the next player by showing a nostalgic Yankee ink..

Now a card that shows a Yankees player together with a Mets player and a Mariners player, it's from 2005 Upper Deck Trilogy, and features pieces from the bats of Graig Nettles, Adrian Beltre and David Wright

As you can't see, the card is nubered to 85...

The remaining cards that came home with me from the other side of the ocean are the following...

2010 Letter Auto of Tyler Colvin from Finest, it's the refractor version and it's numbered to 75!

2007 SP Legendary Cuts piece of bat of Alan Trammell

2003 Topps All time fan favorites game used bat of George Foster

2008 UD A piece of History game used jersey of Victor Martinez, numbered to just 25

And a 2001 SPX Winning Materials (with a shameful piece of jersey and a hateful piece of bat) of Barry Bonds...

And for those of you that are wondering why there are no 2013 Tribute WBC in this posts, well...I wasn't able to find a single card from that set! Since a rookie card of Tanaka is part of the set, the boxes prices were through the roof and no singles were sold at the show..

But if you're patient enough (ten minutes more or less), you'll soon find a new post with the latest addition to the set!